Jokes at Rural Americans’ Expense Aren’t Worth the Chuckle

Last week, a CNN segment featuring Rick Wilson, Wajahat Ali, and Don Lemon took a sudden, jarring turn.

“[Pompeo] knows deep in his heart that Donald Trump couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter ‘U’ and a picture of an actual, physical crane next to it,” Wilson said, alluding to a tense exchange between the Secretary of State and NPR host Mary Louise Kelly. “He knows that this is an administration defined by ignorance of the world. And so that’s partly him playing to their base and playing to their audience—you know, the credulous boomer rube demo.”

“Donald Trump’s the smart one—y’all elitists are dumb!” he continued in a mock Southern accent, apparently aping Trump supporters.

“You elitists with your geography and your maps and your spelling,” Ali jibed, while Lemon dabbed away tears of laughter.

The clip drew censure from a range of pundits—and not without reason. Assuming Trump voters are provincial country fools isn’t just erroneous (college-educated white voters supported Trump over Clinton in 2016)—it’s counterproductive. This issue came up again and again during my AmeriCorps service term last year in rural parts of America: My conservative colleagues frequently complained of mainstream media outlets mischaracterizing rural conservatives as ignorant and obnoxious. This recent display on CNN proves them right.

Of course, as commentators (including Ali) have pointed out, Trump and his supporters routinely traffic in racist, sexist remarks against their critics. But firing back with offensive stereotypes of rural Americans deepens already fraught cultural divides and denies swaths of the country their basic dignity.

Prior to living and working in rural parts of America, I’d considered rural American culture and conservative politics to be synonymous. These gut assumptions, I soon realized, can be dangerous.

Kenny, an elderly local volunteer I worked with in Kansas, first approached me wearing a soiled workman’s polo and a camouflage hat.

“So tell me, son,” he inquired, “do you believe in climate change?”

I shifted my feet and looked away, preparing myself for an impending disagreement.

“Uh, yes—yes, I do,” I replied warily after a moment.

“Good! So do I. So should everyone!” Kenny, a farmer and lifelong environmentalist, was overjoyed by my faith in science.

I’d failed to realize that even in the country’s most conservative counties, there are scores of activists and community leaders committed to advancing social justice. Progressives like Kenny are every bit as culturally rural as their Trump-supporting neighbors; to deride rural Americans as brainwashed reactionaries is to deny the existence of those fighting for social equality, climate justice, and universal access to quality health care and education.

During my service term, I met many rural Americans who associated progressivism with smug condescension toward working people. Despite touting policies aimed at reviving rural economies, Democrats have consistently failed to convince voters that they value rural dignity. Unabashedly mocking rural American culture doesn’t help.

Urban liberals are also often shielded from the consequences of their hauteur: It’s easy to make fun of Trump voters in cloistered environments surrounded by like-minded people. Progressives who live in deeply conservative areas, however, face a more challenging exercise: convincing their friends and neighbors, who rarely encounter people with progressive worldviews, to see their side of things. Snide comments from those on the left make this task nearly impossible.

In short, jokes at the expense of rural Americans aren’t worth the chuckle. Liberal snobbery costs Democrats votes in key states, and progressive political candidates suffer as a result. Rather than ridiculing rural culture, Democrats should aim to radically expand their understanding of the lives of working-class and rural Americans; the swell of popular support for Sen. Bernie Sanders, for instance, can be linked to his ability to connect with voters across socio-cultural fault lines. Endorsing inclusive policies, refusing to participate in culture conflict, and generally making an effort to exhibit empathy would go a long way toward easing tensions between rural and urban parts of America.

In response to the tide of criticism, Ali tweeted a video of Trump mocking Jeff Sessions with a similarly disdainful Southern accent. If liberals adopt Trump’s standard of civility, they’ve missed the point. In order to successfully cast themselves as the party of the people, Democrats must fully embrace Americans—workers, teachers, farmers—of all stripes. The coming election, and the future of our fractured country, depends on it.